This invention relates to packaging apparatus and has to do more particularly with packaging apparatus for closing and sealing the ends of rectangular cartons as they are conveyed in a path of travel by a series of carriages to which the open-ended cartons are sequentially presented, and from which the cartons are sequentially discharged following a series of manipulative steps during which the cartons are closed and sealed.
The present invention relates to a modification and adaptation of the type of sealing apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,803 and those which preceded it wherein lined carton structures to be closed and sealed are placed in carriages which advance the cartons through a series of operating stations at which the extending liner mouths and the end closure flaps arre folded and sealed as the cartons advance in the closed loop path of travel. Such apparatus was specifically designed to handle conventional lined cartons, that is, lined cartons having conventional seal end closure flaps adapted to be sequentially infolded and adhered together to form the end closure. Where the cartons included tubular liners, the mouths of the liners were engaged by sets of fingers which entered the liners and expanded to bring the liners to a flattened and elongated position, whereupon the flattened mouths of the liners were sealed together and folded over, followed by the infolding of the leading and trailing end closure flaps, the application of adhesive and the infolding of the remaining pair of end closure flaps.
The present invention relates to the closing and sealing of cartons having a unique self-sealing reclosable end closure of the type disclosed in co-pending U.S. application for Letters Patent Ser. No. 644,303 filed Dec. 24, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,060, and entitled "Carton with Self-Sealing Reclosable End Closure", and specifically to apparatus designed to automatically close and seal cartons having self-sealing reclosable end closures as disclosed in the aforesaid co-pending application.